Social networking system, apparatus, and method

ABSTRACT

A social networking system, apparatus and method are provided. For example, a user of a computing system may quickly and easily select a subset of a group of individuals with whom he or she wishes to communicate. The user may also choose to “eavesdrop” on conversations between other individuals in the group and potentially participate in the discussion.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority of U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. Nos. 61/528,993, filed Aug. 30, 2011, and 61/539,707, filed Sep.27, 2011. The subject matter of these earlier-filed applications ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present invention generally relates to social networking, and morespecifically, to a social networking system, apparatus, and methodfacilitating interaction between users for various relationships and/orinterests, such as sporting events.

BACKGROUND

Social networking services exist that bring individuals together whoshare friendships, intimate relationships, or family relationships, orshare common activities and/or interests. Users may be represented by aprofile and be linked to other users (as with Facebook , for example).Most such services are web-based and are accessed via a web browser,although applications on mobile computing devices such as the iPhone®and Android® are becoming increasingly common.

However, while such websites and applications may provide forumfunctionality where users may post messages to one another or messageone another in groups, a more interactive and natural way to communicatebetween users may be beneficial.

SUMMARY

Certain embodiments of the present invention may provide solutions tothe problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fully solved byconventional social networking applications. For example, certainembodiments of the present invention provide a social messagingapplication that allows a user of a computing system to quickly andeasily select a subset of a group of individuals with whom he or shewishes to communicate. In some embodiments, the user may also choose to“eavesdrop” on conversations between other individuals in the group andpotentially participate in the discussion. “Social messaging” includes,but is not limited to, text messages (e.g., via Short Message Service(“SMS”)), posts, private messages, and public messages.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a computer program isembodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The program isconfigured to cause at least one processor to display a first page orscreen with a plurality of designations of members of a group to a user.The program is also configured to cause the at least one processor toreceive and store a plurality of group member selections made by theuser. The program is further configured to cause the at least oneprocessor to receive and store a social message from the user, and tosend the social message to the plurality of selected group members.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a computer program isembodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The program isconfigured to cause at least one processor to receive and store aplurality of group member selections from a user or an automatedprocess. The program is also configured to cause the at least oneprocessor to display one or more conversations between two or more ofthe plurality of selected group members to the user.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention, acomputer-implemented method includes receiving and storing, by acomputing system, a plurality of group member selections from a user oran automated process. The computer-implemented method also includesdisplaying, by the computing system, one or more conversations betweentwo or more of the plurality of selected group members to the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that the advantages of certain embodiments of the inventionwill be readily understood, a more particular description of theinvention briefly described above will be rendered by reference tospecific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawings.While it should be understood that these drawings depict only typicalembodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered tobe limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explainedwith additional specificity and detail through the use of theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a computing system for facilitating socialnetworking, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an architectural diagram of a social networkingsystem, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A illustrates a screen of a social networking application showinga plurality of group members, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3B illustrates the screen of the social networking applicationafter multiple users have been selected, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 4A illustrates a screen of a social networking application showinga plurality of group members, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4B illustrates the screen of the social networking applicationafter a plurality of group members have been selected, according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a screen of a social networking application wherecommunications between selected group members are shown, according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a screen of a social networking application wherecommunications between selected group members are shown, according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method for receiving and storingselections of group members, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a method for monitoring, viewing, andjoining in on group member conversations, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of a method for facilitating quick andeasy selection of group members, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of a method for “eavesdropping” on aconversation between a pair or group of group members, according to anembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

It will be readily understood that the components of various embodimentsof the present invention, as generally described and illustrated in thefigures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety ofdifferent configurations. Thus, the following more detailed descriptionof the embodiments of the present invention, as represented in theattached figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the invention asclaimed, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of theinvention.

The features, structures, or characteristics of the invention describedthroughout this specification may be combined in any suitable manner inone or more embodiments. For example, reference throughout thisspecification to “certain embodiments,” “some embodiments,” or similarlanguage means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases“in certain embodiments,” “in some embodiment,” “in other embodiments,”or similar language throughout this specification do not necessarily allrefer to the same group of embodiments and the described features,structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner inone or more embodiments.

Some embodiments of the present invention pertain to a gaming socialnetworking system where users can register and login to follow the teamsthey like, view scores, news, and feeds from other users for the gamesthey are interested in. Users can add friends and create groups, or canbe a part of an existing group. Users can also participate in polls andcan chat with friends or other group members. However, the methods,systems, and apparatuses discussed herein may be applied to applicationsother than gaming, and the scope of the applications to which thetechnology can be applied is not limited in any way to games and/orsports.

FIG. 1 illustrates a computing system 100 for facilitating socialnetworking, according to an embodiment of the present invention. System100 includes a bus 105 or other communication mechanism forcommunicating information, and a processor 110 coupled to bus 105 forprocessing information. Processor 110 may be any type of general orspecific purpose processor, including a central processing unit (“CPU”)or application specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”). Processor 110 mayalso be a multicore processor and/or a collection of multipleprocessors. System 100 further includes a memory 115 for storinginformation and instructions to be executed by processor 110. Memory 115can be comprised of any combination of random access memory (“RAM”),read only memory (“ROM”), flash memory, cache, static storage such as amagnetic or optical disk, or any other types of non-transitorycomputer-readable media or combinations thereof. Additionally, system100 includes a communication device 120, such as a wireless networkinterface card or a transceiver, to provide access to a network.

Non-transitory computer-readable media may be any available media thatcan be accessed by processor 110 and may include both volatile andnon-volatile media, removable and non-removable media, and communicationmedia. Communication media may include computer- readable instructions,data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated datasignal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includesany information delivery media.

Processor 110 is further coupled via bus 105 to a display 125, such as aLiquid Crystal Display (“LCD”), for displaying information to a user. Akeyboard 130 and a cursor control device 135, such as a computer mouse,are further coupled to bus 105 to enable a user to interface with system100.

In one embodiment, memory 115 stores software modules that providefunctionality when executed by processor 110. The modules include anoperating system 140 for system 100. The modules further include asocial networking module 145 that is configured to facilitateinteraction between a plurality of users. System 100 may include one ormore additional functional modules 150 that include additionalfunctionality.

One skilled in the art will appreciate that a “system” could be embodiedas a personal computer, a server, a console, a personal digitalassistant (“PDA”), a cell phone, a tablet computing device, or any othersuitable computing device, or combination of devices. Presenting theabove-described functions as being performed by a “system” is notintended to limit the scope of the present invention in any way, but isintended to provide one example of many embodiments of the presentinvention. Indeed, methods, systems and apparatuses disclosed herein maybe implemented in localized and distributed forms consistent withcomputing technology.

It should be noted that some of the system features described in thisspecification have been presented as modules, in order to moreparticularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, amodule may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom verylarge scale integration (“VLSI”) circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelfsemiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discretecomponents. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardwaredevices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable arraylogic, programmable logic devices, graphics processing units, or thelike.

A module may also be at least partially implemented in software forexecution by various types of processors. An identified unit ofexecutable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical orlogical blocks of computer instructions that may, for instance, beorganized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, theexecutables of an identified module need not be physically locatedtogether, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in differentlocations which, when joined logically together, comprise the module andachieve the stated purpose for the module. Further, modules may bestored on a computer-readable medium, which may be, for instance, a harddisk drive, flash device, RAM, tape, or any other such medium used tostore data.

Indeed, a module of executable code could be a single instruction, ormany instructions, and may even be distributed over several differentcode segments, among different programs, and across several memorydevices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustratedherein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form andorganized within any suitable type of data structure. The operationaldata may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed overdifferent locations including over different storage devices, and mayexist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system ornetwork.

FIG. 2 illustrates an architectural diagram 200 of a social networkingsystem, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Thearchitecture depicted in this embodiment is a three-tier architectureincluding a database (“DB”) and repository server 210, a web server 230,and a client 250. In some embodiments, full support to RepresentationalState Transfer (“REST”) based Windows Communication Foundation (“WCF”)services from a live feed as well as interaction with a Structured QueryLanguage (“SQL”) database 212 are included in the architecture. However,embodiments of the present invention are not limited to Windowe-basedsystems, and any suitable operating system and/or architecture may beused depending on design choice. WCF services may be a core part of thearchitecture, and functionality may be exposed to client 250 by WCFservices in certain embodiments.

Statistics provider 205 may provide data via a push operation toExtensible Markup Language (“XML”) repository 214 of database andrepository server 210. XML repository 214 is capable of providing liveupdates to business logic layer 220 and also communicates with backuproutines 216, which operate as a Win service. SQL database 212 alsocommunicates with backup routines 216.

The core application may consist of a business logic layer 220, a dataaccess layer 218, and a presentation layer (not shown) that exists ondesktop/laptop computer 252 and cell phone 254. These three layers mayinteract with SQL database 212 and any other common resource. In thisembodiment, business logic layer 220 contains all of the business logic,and hence logical activities are handled by this layer. Also in thisembodiment, data access layer 218 contains all database relatedactivities, so business logic is not present in this layer. Data accesslayer 218 may use, for example, a SQL Helper class library forinteractive functionality with SQL database 212. The presentation layerdeals with the look-and-feel of the application. Various screens andcontrols on pages or Win forms may be defined in this layer. Thepresentation layer may be client-specific, and hence different fordevices such as the iPhone®, Android® phones, personal computers, etc.

In web server 230, WFC/web services 232 deal with services and may bethe main communication point for the application. Various services areexposed via the WCF platform. The output of these services may betotally REST-based for easy consumption thereof by client devices.Security for external communications of the application may be handledby any suitable mechanism, such as Secure Socket Layer (“SSL”).Communications between WFC/web services 232 and the client devices(desktop/laptop computer 252 and cell phone 254) may take the form ofJavaScript Object Notation (“JSON”) or XML, as shown in JSON/XML 240.

FIG. 3A illustrates a screen 300 of a social networking applicationshowing a plurality of group members, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. Screen 300 includes a page header section 310 thatcan contain relevant information such as sports scores, teams, graphics,or any other appropriate information depending on the purpose and scopeof the application. A plurality of group members 320 are shown thatbelong to a certain group with the user. The group member designations,or icons, for each of group members 320 may be photos, text, graphics,an animation, a combination thereof, or any other suitable designation.The group may be created by the user, or by any other user, softwareapplication, or entity. In this embodiment, the shown subset of thegroup contains nine members, but the number of members shown is a matterof design choice. Further, multiple pages may exist (as is the casehere) for groups that exceed the number of members shown on a givenpage, and a number of pages appropriate to the number of group membersper page may be created. For instance, if there are 90 members, GroupMembers 10-18 could be viewed on the second page, Group Members 19-27could be viewed on the third page, Group Members 81-90 could be viewedon the last page, etc. Links, buttons, or any other functionality may beincluded to facilitate pagination such that users can select a page ofgroup members to view.

A social message entry section 330 allows the user to enter a socialmessage, such as a text message, intended for one or more group members,as will be discussed in more detail with respect to FIG. 3B. The usersends the social message, which may be a SMS message or any othersuitable format, via send button 340. A page footer section 350 maydisplay any pertinent text or graphics based on the desired application.A pagination scheme 360 allows navigation between the pages of groupmembers. The specific design, layout, presentation, and content shown inscreen 300 is a matter of design choice and preference, depending on thesubject matter to which the application is directed.

FIG. 3B illustrates the screen 300 of the social networking applicationafter multiple users have been selected, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. In this screen, Group Member 1, Group Member 2,and Group Member 8 have been selected, and the borders of the imagesthereof have been thickened to indicate selection. To select the groupmembers, a user may click the group members with the assistance of aperipheral device such as a mouse, a keyboard, or by touching a haptic(e.g., touch screen) interface such as that of a smart phone. When agroup member is selected, the selected group member icon may changecolor or shape, a sound may be emitted, the computing device mayvibrate, a combination of these actions may occur, or any other suitablemechanism may be used to indicate that the user has selected a givengroup member.

In cases where a pagination scheme is used, the user may move betweendifferent pages of a plurality of group members, where at least some ofthe group members may be different, and select the group members he orshe wishes to communicate with on one or more pages. Once the user hasselected one or more group members with whom he or she wishes tocommunicate, the user may enter a social message into social messageentry section 330 and then send the social message by using send button340. In some embodiments, the most recent messages shown may bedisplayed on screen 300 (not shown here).

FIG. 4A illustrates a screen of a social networking application 400showing a plurality of group members, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. Screen 400 includes a page header section 410 thatcan contain relevant information such as sports scores, teams, graphics,or any other appropriate information depending on the purpose of theapplication. A plurality of group members 420 are shown that belong to acertain group with the user. A conversation display section 430 showsconversations between group members, which can be selected as discussedwith respect to FIG. 4B. A pagination scheme 440 allows navigationbetween the pages of group members. The specific design, layout,presentation, and content shown in screen 400 is a matter of designchoice and preference, depending on the subject matter to which theapplication is directed.

In some embodiments, rather than manually selecting group members, theselection may occur via an automated process, such as software thatidentifies the group members that the user communicates with mostfrequently or most recently. Selections may also be automatically madebased on geographic location, common interests, or any other criteria orindicia for categorizing groups of individuals. Selections ofindividuals, whether made manually by the user or by automated tools,may persist for a predetermined time or for the duration of an event, orthe selections may persist until modified or cancelled by the user.

FIG. 4B illustrates the screen 400 of the social networking applicationafter a plurality of group members have been selected, according to anembodiment of the present invention. In this screen, Group Member 2,Group Member 4, and Group Member 7 have been selected, and the bordersof the images thereof have been thickened to indicate selection. Toselect the group members, a user may click the group members with theassistance of a peripheral device such as a mouse, a keyboard, or toucha haptic (e.g., touch screen) interface such as that of a smart phone.When a group member is selected, the selected member icon may changecolor or shape, a sound may be emitted, the computing device mayvibrate, a combination of these actions may occur, or any other suitablemechanism may be used.

In cases where a pagination scheme is used, the user may move betweendifferent pages of a plurality of group members, at least some of whichmay be different, and select the group members they wish to communicatewith. Once the user has selected one or more group members that he orshe wishes to “eavesdrop” on, the user may view conversations inconversation display section 430. In some embodiments, the most recentmessage may be displayed. In other embodiments, multiple previousmessages may be displayed.

The eavesdropping functionality is more similar to how individualsactually communicate conversationally in many real life situations thanforum-based methods. For instance, when individuals are at a party, abar, or another social venue, they often overhear conversations betweenothers and choose to chime in on a given topic. While this may often beconsidered to be undesirable between strangers online, where a group ofindividuals in a social networking application share a relationship, orat least a common interest, the ability to view conversations pertainingto certain topics such as sports, for example, between family and/orfriends can enhance the user experience for the application.

In some embodiments, the user may need to designate two individuals at atime, or just a conversation between the two, and press a button tofollow conversations between those individuals. In other embodiments,conversations between any two or more of the selected individuals may befollowed. In yet other embodiments, such as depicted here, separatebuttons may exist to follow conversations between two individuals, or tofollow conversations among a group of individuals. 1-to-1 conversationselection button 450 allows the user to follow conversations between anytwo of the selected individuals. Group conversation selection button 460allows the user to follow group conversations between all or any subsetof the selected group members. In other embodiments, subgroups may beuser-defined, software-defined, or defined using any other mechanism. Alisting of the existing subsets may be provided so the user can selectgroup conversations to follow, and such group conversations may beselected without selecting individual group members in some embodiments.However, any button configuration and/or selection interface may be usedin some embodiments.

In this embodiment, buttons 450 and 460 for following conversations mayonly appear when the user selects at least two group members (note theirabsence in FIG. 4A). However, in other embodiments, the buttons may bedisplayed prior to selection, or some mechanism other than buttons maybe used for selection, such as radio buttons, a dropdown menu, or anyother suitable mechanism or widget.

FIG. 5 illustrates a screen 500 of a social networking application wherecommunications between selected group members are shown, according to anembodiment of the present invention. Screen 500 includes a page headersection 510 that can contain relevant information such as sports scores,teams, graphics, or any other appropriate information depending on thepurpose of the application. A conversation display section 520 shows anordered listing, from most recent to least recent, of messages 530, 540,and 550 between the group members selected in FIG. 4B. Social messageentry sections 532, 542, and 552 enable social messages to be enteredfor each of conversations 530, 540, and 550, respectively, and the usercan send social messages to respective group members participating in aconversation by clicking on associated comment buttons 534, 544, or 554.In this case, the user has entered text into social message entrysection 532 to comment on a conversation between Group Member 2 andGroup Member 4.

In other embodiments, a screen may exist where listings of pairs and/orgroups of group members who are conversing are provided, and a user canview all conversations between two group members and make comments byselecting the appropriate item on the listing. Also, the conversationfunctionality discussed above may be displayed on any other page of theapplication, or in any other format. Further, the user may be notifiedof new conversations between two or more group members via an SMSmessage, e-mail, sound, vibration, change in text and/or color of theapplication, or by any other suitable means. Further, for all elementsdiscussed in all screens herein, scrolling functionality or any otherbrowsing functionality may be used for convenient navigation of thepages of the application.

FIG. 6 illustrates a screen 600 of a social networking application wherecommunications between selected group members are shown, according to anembodiment of the present invention. Unlike FIG. 5, in this embodiment,a common text entry section 660 and a single comment button 662 areincluded and conversations that the user wants to chime in on areindividually selected. Screen 600 includes a page header section 610that can contain relevant information such as sports scores, teams,graphics, or any other appropriate information depending on the purposeof the application. A conversation display section 620 shows an orderedlisting, from most recent to least recent, of messages 630, 640, and 650between the group members selected in FIG. 4B.

Conversation selection buttons 632, 642, and 652 select conversations630, 640, and 650, respectively, for comment via common social messageentry section 660 and comment button 662. In this case, the user hasselected conversation 630 via conversation selection button 632, whichhas changed in appearance to indicate selection. In this case, the userhas entered text in social message entry section 660, which would besent to Group Member 2 and Group Member 4 upon pressing comment button662.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart 700 of a method for receiving and storingselections of group members, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. The method may be performed, for example, by the systemsshown in FIGS. 1 and 2 in some embodiments. A computing system firststores one or more group member selections from a first group memberlisting page at 710. These group member selections may be made, forexample, via a haptic interface of a smart phone where a user touchesicons pertaining to desired group members that he or she wants tomonitor conversations for.

The computing system then displays a second group member listing page at720. This second page may be displayed in response to a user navigatingto a new set of group members via pagination functionality The computingsystem stores one or more additional group member selections from thesecond group member listing page at 730. Next, the computing systemstores relationships between the selected group members at 740. Theserelationships may be indications that 1-to-1 conversations betweenselected group members and/or between sets of group members are to betracked. The monitoring and reporting of conversations between selectedgroup members to the user is discussed in more detail below with respectto FIG. 8.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart 800 of a method for monitoring, viewing,and joining in on group member conversations, according to an embodimentof the present invention. The method may be performed, for example, bythe systems shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 in some embodiments. A computingsystem receives information pertaining to a communication between groupmembers at 810. For example, the computing system may receive the textof a communication in the conversation between group members, the namesof the group members (or an identifier identifying the pairing or groupof group members), the time at which the communication took place, etc.The computing system then displays the communication to the user at 820.The communication may be in the context of a conversation between two ormore users in some embodiments.

The computing system then receives a social message from a user at 830.Through an interface, the user may select a conversation to join in on,enter the text, and then press a button (or use any other selectionmechanism) to indicate that he or she wishes to add the text to theconversation. The computing system then sends the social messsageprovided by the user to the other group members involved in theconversation at 840.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart 900 of a method for facilitating quickand easy selection of group members, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. The method may be performed, for example, by thesystems shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 in some embodiments. The method includesdetermining whether a number of group members to be displayed to theuser exceeds a predetermined number at 910. If so, pagination isdisplayed at 920. Thereafter, or if the predetermined number is notexceeded, the process proceeds to displaying a first page or screen witha plurality of designations of members of a group to a user at 930. Thegroup members that are displayed may be chosen in some embodiments viaan automated process based on group members the user communicates withmost frequently or most recently. In some other embodiments, theautomated process may choose group members based on geographic locationor common interests relative to the user.

If the user makes group member selections, these selections are receivedand stored at 940. The group member selections may persist for apredetermined period of time, for the duration of an event, or untilmodified or cancelled by the user in some embodiments. If the userselects a new page or screen at 950 via available pagination options,the new page or screen is displayed at 960. If the user is still viewingthe page or screen at 970, the process proceeds back to receiving andstoring group member selections at 940, if such selections are made. Ifthe user is no longer merely viewing the screen at 970 and chooses toenter text to send to the selected group members, the text is receivedfrom the user at 980 and then sent as a social message to the pluralityof selected group members at 990.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart 1000 of a method for “eavesdropping” ona conversation between a pair or group of group members, according to anembodiment of the present invention. The method may be performed, forexample, by the systems shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 in some embodiments. Themethod includes receiving and storing a plurality of group memberselections from a user or automated process at 1010. One or moreconversations between two or more of the plurality of selected groupmembers are then displayed to the user at 1020. In some embodiments, apredetermined number of the most recent messages in the conversationsmay be displayed.

Next, a designation from the user to follow one or more conversationsbetween two or more group members is received and stored at 1030. Insome embodiments, only conversations between pairs of the selected groupmembers may be followed. In other embodiments, conversations between allselected group members, and/or between one or more subgroups of theselected group members, are followed. Relationships between the two ormore individuals such that conversations may be tracked, provided to,and displayed to the user are then created and stored at 1040. In somecases, the relationships may have been previously created and stored ina database and do not need to be created and stored again. Someembodiments may check for previously existing relationships andreference these relationships when they are discovered.

Text from the user to be contributed to one or more of the displayedconversations is then received and stored at 1050. In some embodiments,the user may designate multiple conversations to submit the same socialmessage to. The social message is then sent to group members of the oneor more conversations to which the user wishes to contribute at 1060.

Some embodiments of the present invention pertain to a unique groupmember selection and communication mechanism provided via a socialnetworking software application running on a computing system. Theapplication may facilitate selection of two or more members of a groupwhose communications a user of the application wishes to monitor. Theuser may then receive and view communications between the two or moregroup members and add to the conversation if the user so desires.

It should be noted that reference throughout this specification tofeatures, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of thefeatures and advantages that may be realized with the present inventionshould be or are in any single embodiment of the invention. Rather,language referring to the features and advantages is understood to meanthat a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described inconnection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment ofthe present invention. Thus, discussion of the features and advantages,and similar language, throughout this specification may, but do notnecessarily, refer to the same embodiment.

Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics ofthe invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize that theinvention can be practiced without one or more of the specific featuresor advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additionalfeatures and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments thatmay not be present in all embodiments of the invention.

One having ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that theinvention as discussed above may be practiced with steps in a differentorder, and/or with hardware elements in configurations which aredifferent than those which are disclosed. Therefore, although theinvention has been described based upon these preferred embodiments, itwould be apparent to those of skill in the art that certainmodifications, variations, and alternative constructions would beapparent, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention.In order to determine the metes and bounds of the invention, therefore,reference should be made to the appended claims.

1. A computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer-readablemedium, the program configured to cause at least one processor to:display a first page or screen with a plurality of designations ofmembers of a group to a user; receive and store a plurality of groupmember selections made by the user; receive and store a social messagefrom the user; and send the social message to the plurality of selectedgroup members.
 2. The computer program of claim 1, wherein the programis configured to cause the at least one processor to choose groupmembers for display via an automated process based on the group membersthe user communicates with most frequently or most recently.
 3. Thecomputer program of claim 1, wherein the program is configured to causethe at least one processor to choose group members for display based ongeographic location or common interests.
 4. The computer program ofclaim 1, wherein the group member selections persist for a predeterminedperiod of time, for a duration of an event, or until modified orcancelled by the user.
 5. The computer program of claim 1, wherein whena number of group members to be displayed to the user exceeds apredetermined number, the program is further configured to cause the atleast one processor to: display a pagination indicator that permitsselection of multiple pages of group members by the user; display asecond page or screen responsive to user selection of the paginationindicator; and receive and store at least one group member selectionfrom the second page or screen.
 6. A computer program embodied on anon-transitory computer-readable medium, the program configured to causeat least one processor to: receive and store a plurality of group memberselections from a user or an automated process; and display one or moreconversations between two or more of the plurality of selected groupmembers to the user.
 7. The computer program of claim 6, wherein theprogram is further configured to cause the at least one processor to:receive and store a social message from the user to be contributed toone or more of the displayed conversations; and send the social messageto group members of the one or more conversations to which the userwishes to contribute.
 8. The computer program of claim 6, wherein apredetermined number of the most recent messages in the one or moreconversations are displayed.
 9. The computer program of claim 6, whereinthe program is further configured to cause the at least one processorto: receive a designation from the user to follow one or moreconversations between two or more group members; and create and storerelationships between the two or more individuals such thatconversations may be tracked, provided to, and displayed to the user.10. The computer program of claim 9, wherein the program is configuredto cause the at least one processor to only follow conversations betweenpairs of the selected group members.
 11. The computer program of claim9, wherein the program is configured to cause the at least one processorto follow conversations between all selected group members, and/orbetween one or more subgroups of the selected group members.
 12. Acomputer-implemented method, comprising: receiving and storing, by acomputing system, a plurality of group member selections from a user oran automated process; and displaying, by the computing system, one ormore conversations between two or more of the plurality of selectedgroup members to the user.
 13. The computer-implemented method of claim12, further comprising: receiving and storing, by the computing system,a social message from the user to be contributed to one or more of thedisplayed conversations; and sending the social message, by thecomputing system, to group members of the one or more conversations towhich the user wishes to contribute.
 14. The computer-implemented methodof claim 12, wherein a predetermined number of the most recent messagesin the one or more conversations are displayed.
 15. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising: receiving,by the computing system, a designation from the user to follow one ormore conversations between two or more group members; and creating andstoring, by the computing system, relationships between the two or moreindividuals such that conversations may be tracked, provided to, anddisplayed to the user.
 16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15,wherein only conversations between pairs of the selected group membersare followed.
 17. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, whereinconversations between all selected group members, and/or between one ormore subgroups of the selected group members are followed.
 18. Thecomputer program of claim 1, wherein the program is further configuredto cause the at least one processor to cause the group memberdesignations to persist for a predetermined period of time or for aduration of an event.
 19. The computer program of claim 6, wherein theprogram is further configured to cause the at least one processor tocause the group member designations to persist for a predeterminedperiod of time or for a duration of an event.
 20. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the group memberdesignations persist for a predetermined period of time or for aduration of an event.